(Comrade Sunil Handunneththi\u2019s observations at the press conference held at the JVP head office today (21). National Executive Members of National People’s Power Chaturanga Abeysinghe, and Prof. Anil Jayantha also participated.)<\/p>\n
\u201cChristmas has come, and people are getting ready to start a new year when they have been dragged from the pan to the hearth. The prices of goods are increasing during the festive season beyond the average increase in the prices of goods. The reason is that the government has imposed the crisis on the people. In 2024, the government expects to earn 2215 billion rupees from taxes on goods and services. It is a Rs. 859 billion increase over 2023. VAT increase is 105%. The expected VAT of Rs. 680 billion in 2023 has been increased to Rs. 1400 billion in 2024. The list of goods exempted from VAT so far will be further narrowed down and implemented starting in January. But the tax-paying people, businesses or even the tax-collecting department do not know how to collect these taxes. Some businessmen have already begun to collect VAT, so the prices of goods have gone up.
\nDespite there are only nine days before the first of January, a straightforward programme has not yet been presented regarding the method of tax collection. For example, even if new VAT is levied on fuel, no one knows whether it will be levied at the time of landing at the port or whether the VAT will be levied on it after custom fees and other taxes have been levied. For example, if 18% VAT is charged on an item costing Rs.1000\/-, the price will be Rs.1180\/-. But if the price of Rs.1000\/- is charged after the social security tax of 2.5% is charged, then the cost of that product will be Rs.1209\/-because VAT is charged on Rs 1025\/-. Due to this, the actual VAT becomes 18.45% even though it is 18%.
\nAs the imposed tax is not analyzed, the tax increases during the tax implementation process. The government will act to recover the revenue that is targeted to be earned up to Rs. 1400 billion. But what happens to the people? Their income has not increased. Government employees, including personnel of the armed services, who receive monthly salaries will be in a dire predicament. Mahinda Rajapaksa, who asked, “Did you eat onions? Are you happy now?” raised his hand in Parliament and approved the budget and tax amendments, but now comes out and declares that he is against VAT. Rather than talking to the people, they work together to preserve power within the Parliament. The 18% VAT has become a compound tax. It is a grave matter. People don’t even know what tax is being imposed on them now. The tax list has been submitted to the Parliament in a seriously distorted state. From the list of goods that were exempted from the VAT Act passed in 2002, a list of new taxes has been made. The list of new taxes is not stated in a simple way that is clear to the people. It states that “elderly and child care services” are exempt from VAT. However, they tax everything related to this outside the bounds of interpretation. Although it is said that one part of education is exempted, many other things related to it are subject to VAT. Due to this, businessmen and even people are in crisis.
\nThe people of this country have a sacred right to know what taxes should be paid. Although taxes are necessary to run a government, a compound tax has been imposed here. The same goes for the electricity bill. It is not clear whether VAT will be levied by adding the unit charge and fixed charge to the electricity bill. The same goes for fuel. The same goes for surgical instruments. It is an operation by the government to deliberately distort taxes and confuse the market, industries and people.
\nFor example, Trade and Consumer Minister Nalin Fernando is preparing to import fifty thousand metric tons of keeri samba by presenting a ministerial paper on December 14th. Cabinet approval has been obtained to import this rice by selected importers in the private sector. However, it has been mentioned in the cabinet memorandum that “Also, as an export tax is charged for rice in India and if the special commodity tax already imposed on rice is further imposed, it has been observed that imported rice cannot be issued at the maximum retail price.” The minister himself admits that there is no point in imposing the maximum price. It has been confirmed that the price of rice will increase above the maximum price due to the special commodity tax. Due to this, it has been further mentioned that the special commodity tax of 65 rupees on imported rice should be reduced to 1 rupee.
\nOn the one hand, it is confirmed that the government accepts that the people are affected by this tax of 65 rupees. On the other hand, when that tax is reduced to a rupee, will the price of rice decrease by 65 rupees? How could they give that guarantee?
\nExperience has made it clear that the relevant businessmen have been given the opportunity to gain additional profit due to the removal of an imposed tax. Even the businessmen importing this rice have been named in the relevant cabinet paper. In our country’s garlic and sugar tax frauds, businessmen who are ministers’ friends were allowed to earn extra profits. If there is a need to import kiri samba during the festival, importing is not a problem. However, there is no transparent system for granting import licenses. VAT has been imposed in such a distorted situation. As the Economic Council of the National People’s Power, we urge the government to immediately reveal to the country the method of collecting VAT without burdening the people. The list of newly charged VAT should be disclosed to the country. The interpretation of VAT should be clear. If this is not done, we have no other option but to join the public and take to the streets to settle the relevant measures. The government has the responsibility to make relevant explanations before that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
(Comrade Sunil Handunneththi\u2019s observations at the press conference held at the JVP head office today (21). National Executive Members of National People’s Power Chaturanga Abeysinghe, and Prof. Anil Jayantha also participated.) \u201cChristmas has come, and people are getting ready to start a new year when they have been dragged from the pan to the hearth. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":8549,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-8548","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"entry","9":"gs-1","10":"gs-odd","11":"gs-even","12":"gs-featured-content-entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jvpsrilanka.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8548"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jvpsrilanka.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jvpsrilanka.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jvpsrilanka.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jvpsrilanka.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8548"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jvpsrilanka.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8548\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8550,"href":"https:\/\/www.jvpsrilanka.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8548\/revisions\/8550"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jvpsrilanka.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jvpsrilanka.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jvpsrilanka.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jvpsrilanka.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}